The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Lesbian love movie opens amid sex scene row Posted: 04 Oct 2013 09:22 PM PDT The three-hour-long "Blue is the Warmest Colour" caused a sensation at this year's Cannes film festival, making stars out of its two lead actresses, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux. The pair were all smiles on the French Riviera as they posed for photographs with the film's French-Tunisian director, Abdellatif Kechiche. Chairman of the jury Steven Spielberg hailed it as a "profound love story", adding that the judges had been "absolutely spellbound" by the brilliance of the women's performances and "the way the director... let the characters breathe". But fast forward several months and the mood surrounding the film has soured, with bitter complaints from both actresses about Kechiche's working methods. In an interview published on September 1 by US website The Daily Beast, Exarchopoulos said that she had been unprepared for the extent to which Kechiche required her to immerse herself in the role. "Once we were on the shoot, I realised that he really wanted us to give him everything. Most people don't even dare to ask the things that he did, and they're more respectful," she said. Seydoux complained that a 10-minute sex scene in the film took a full "10 days to shoot". And both women complained about a fight scene. "It was horrible. She (Seydoux) was hitting me so many times and (Kechiche) was screaming 'Hit her! Hit her again!'," Exarchopoulos said. With the film due for release in France next week, the pair again aired their complaints, with Seydoux telling TV magazine Telerama that filming was "horrible" and that she did not think the film should be released. 'He loves his actresses to let go' "For me, this film should not come out, it has been sullied too much. The Palme d'Or was only a brief moment of happiness, afterward I felt humiliated and dishonoured, I felt a rejection of my person, (and) that I live like a curse," she said. Exarchopoulos, meanwhile, told French television that Kechiche was a "tortured genius" but that his demands had harmed both of them. "He made us ill psychologically at times because he loves his actresses to let go and it's hard to do," she said. For his part, Kechiche has responded by saying he believes the comments show "a lack of respect for a metier that I regard as sacred". And French actress Hafsia Herzi, who has worked with Kechiche, launched a defence of the director. He is a "very humane man who gives a chance to people even when they don't have experience", Herzi said in French film magazine So Film. Critic and film historian Jean-Michel Frodon said Kechiche's film would join the ranks of movies that have seen well-publicised difficulties between directors and their stars. Such tensions often came about when actors felt they were giving things to the camera "having exhausted their defences or self-control", he said. Cannes film festival artistic director Thierry Fremaux, meanwhile, recalled that when "The Shining" came out audiences were unaware of the on-set problems between Jack Nicholson and Stanley Kubrick. "Jack Nicholson today, like Malcolm McDowell in (Kubrick's) 'A Clockwork Orange', says that shooting was awful but that they are grateful to Kubrick for everything that the films brought them," he said. "Blue is the Warmest Colour" opens in France and Belgium on October 9, followed by other European countries between October 10 and 25. It will have a limited release in the United States from October 25, as well as slots at four film festivals this month, including Chicago and New York. – AFP, October 5, 2013. |
| Madonna reveals rape at knifepoint when young Posted: 04 Oct 2013 08:10 PM PDT The 55-year-old also recalled being held up at gunpoint and having her seedy apartment burgled three times, saying she was "scared shitless" at times before she started making it as a singer and dancer. In a piece for Harper's Bazaar, she also talked about her time living in Britain married to director Guy Ritchie, saying there is "nothing more beautiful than the English countryside," and revealed that she is now studying the Koran. Describing her arrival in the Big Apple from the Midwest, where she grew up, she wrote: "New York wasn't everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms," and described "paying my rent by posing nude for art classes, staring at people staring at me naked." "The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back, and had my apartment broken into three times. I don't know why; I had nothing of value after they took my radio the first time. "The tall buildings and the massive scale of New York took my breath away. The sizzling-hot sidewalks and the noise of the traffic and the electricity of the people rushing by me on the streets was a shock to my neurotransmitters," she added. She continued: "I felt like I had plugged into another universe. I felt like a warrior plunging my way through the crowds to survive. Blood pumping through my veins, I was poised for survival. "I felt alive. "But I was also scared shitless and freaked out by the smell of piss and vomit everywhere, especially in the entryway of my third-floor walk-up." The "Material Girl" singer, whose career has ranged from "Like a Virgin" to movie roles, the 1992 coffee table book "Sex" and who last toured in 2012, wrote the cover story to accompany a fashion photoshoot of her in typically provocative gear, including a bondage-style mask and a sword. Moving on a decade a time, she recalled being a pop star in her 20s, embracing Kabbalah in her 30s, before marrying Ritchie and moving to Britain by the age of 45. "I consider moving to a foreign country to be a very daring act. It wasn't easy for me .. I didn't understand pub culture. I didn't understand that being openly ambitious was frowned upon. Once again I felt alone. "But I stuck it out and I found my way, and I grew to love English wit, Georgian architecture, sticky toffee pudding, and the English countryside. There is nothing more beautiful than the English countryside." Madonna and Ritchie were divorced in 2008, and a decade later she is back in New York. "I have started making films, which is probably the most challenging and rewarding thing I have ever done. I am building schools for girls in Islamic countries and studying the Koran. I think it is important to study all the holy books. "As my friend Yaman always tells me, a good Muslim is a good Jew, and a good Jew is a good Christian, and so forth. I couldn't agree more." – AFP, October 5, 2013. |
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